Apparatus for treating articles with fluids



May 10, 1966 c w NORTH ETAL APPARATUS FOR TREATING ARTICLES WITH FLUIDS Filed July 8, 1963 United States Patent M 3,250,099 APPARATUS FOR TREATING ARTICLES WITH FLUIDS Charles William North, Steven Pridham, and John Bold, London, and Jack Leicester, Cheam, England, assignors to National Research Development Corporation, London, England, a British corporation Filed July 8, 1963, Ser. No. 293,334 Claims priority, application Great Britain, July 12, 1962,

13 Claims. (CI. 6862) This invention relates to machines in which articles are treated by fluids, and in which the articles move continuously through the machine during treatment.

A well known machine of this type is used to launder the long towels used in automatic towel machines. The t-owels enter the machine at one side; guided by rollers, theythen travel a tortuous path through the machine in which they are first washed and then rinsed, and then emerge from the machine at the other side.. Small piece goods that cannot span the distance from one end of the machine and the other cannot of course be treated in such a way by such apparatus. 1

We have now devised a machine generally of this type but suitable for the treatment of small separate articles. According to our invention these articles are carried through the machine sandwiched between flexible belts. These belts are of open work construction, by which is meant broadly that the belts do not appreciably impede the access of the washing or rinsing liquor to the articles, or its expression from them. This aspect of the necessary characteristics of the belts is defined more specifically hereafter. Our invention also relates to methods of guiding the belts as they pass through the machine.

The scope of our invention is defined by the claims and various applications of it will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the following drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a diagrammatic view in sectioned side elevation of a continuous laundering machine; 1

FIGURE 2 is a perspective view of means used to guide the belts shown in FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 shows alternative belt guiding means in perspective, and

FIGURE 4 shows further alternative belt guiding means.

FIGURE 1 shows a continuous laundering machine, which includes several washing tanks; that indicated by the reference 1 is shown in full, while part of the tank 2 is also shown. The washing tanks are succeeded by rinsing tanks 3. Articles to be laundered are carried through the machine sandwiched between continuous belts 4, 5. These belts are longitudinally guided by driven rollers 6 and idler rollers 7. These rollers may all be covered with rubber or other resilient facings. Alternatively where two rollers define a nip between them, one may be rubber covered and the other be metal faced, as is shown in the art. Articles to be laundered are fed between the belts at 8. In their passage through the washing tanks the articles pass nozzles 9, from which washing liquor is sprayed under pressure forcibly to dislodge the dirt from the articles. They than pass through the nips 10 formed between pairs of driven rollers 6, which express the liquor the articles have retained since their last exposure to the nozzles 9. Washing liquor that drips or is expressed from the articles falls to the bottom of the washing tanks where the liquor level 11 is maintained below that at which the articles are carried by the belts 4, 5. Liquor from the bottom of the washing tangs is recirculated to the nozzles 9 by way of filters 12 and pumps 13.

3,250,099 Patented May 10,1966

In the rinsing tanks 3, belts 4, 5 take a tortuous path in which the articles alternately travel a considerable distance' through rinsing. fluid and then pass through nips which express the liquor. On leaving the final nip 14 at the end of the rinsing tanks the articles may,. as is customary, pass to driers, finishers etc. which are no part of the invention.

The nature of the belts 4, 5 is of importance. Our invention is especially applicable to the laundering of flat work i.e. sheets, pillow cases, handkerchiefs and the like. The belts must therefore be such that they and articles of such robustness sandwiched between them can pass through thenips between the rollers of the apparatus without damaging either themselves, the articles, or the rollers. Wire belts of some known rough kinds would clearly damage such articles if passed through a nip with them. Then the belts must not be so dense as to screen the articles carried between them and thus limit the effectiveness with which the washing liquor from the nozzles 9 can act upon them. We have found it desirable that the belts should not lessen, by more than 10%, the effectiveness of the'washi'ng that would be obtainable were the articles exposed to the nozzles without a belt being in between. Then, even when the belt as a whole satisfies this test, the thickness of the solid parts of the belt must not be such as to leave an appreciable dry image of the pattern of the belt upon an article after it has passed the nozzles. If the belt is woven or otherwise formed from yarn, it has been found that an appreciable dry pattern may be left on articles if the nozzles spray at pressures of, say, 50 to 200 p.s.i.,, the articles travel past the nozzles at rates up to feet a minute, and the yarn is more than about .025 inch thick. Related to these problems are the difiiculties of mangling the articles effectively by passing them through nips, when the belts are thick, and the tendency of thick belts to trap a film of liquid which impedes the play of the nozzles upon the articles. In machines according to our invention, articles sandwiched between the belts and passed through a nip should emerge containing not more than about 50% of their own weight of liquor. Belts that absorb substantial amounts of liquor are therefore unsuitable for the purposes of our invention.

A belt which satisfies the above requirements in any application of the invention may be said to be of a sufliciently open work construction to fall within the scope of it,

In our own tests belts 4, 5 of the following types have been found satisfactory:

A knotless squared fishnet fabric with /2 inch spaces between adjacent bars. Thickness of bars, .025 inch.

A plain weave (10 ends per inch, 16 picks per inch) of monofil polyester fibre .020 inch thick, warp and weft thread-s being heat bonded at intersections, the completed fabric having an average thickness of .035 inch.

A lace of average depth about .018 inch, made of multifi-l yarn, 10 courses and 10 wales per inch.

A lace of multifil yarn with 5 courses and 5 wales to the inch, the thickest yarns being about .020 inch thick.

A woven leno fabric of 15 picks and ends per inch, with Warp and weft yarns. respectively about .005 and .010 inch thick, and another woven leno fabric of 20 picks and ends perinch, with wanp and weft yarns respectively about .007 and .005 inch thick.

A knitted fabric of average depth about .012 inch, with about 24 courses and wales per inch.

It is important thatvthe belts should travel straight. If they wander from side to side as they travel, they will tend to crease and impart creases to the articles that they carry. Means to prevent lateral wandering of the belts, comprising supports alongside the belts and connections 3 between the belts and the supports, are indicated diagrammatically at in FIGURE 1. FIGURE 2 shows them in greater detail. They comprise taut continuous Wires 16 driven by the same rollers 6 that drive the belts 4, 5.

In this and other later figures only the numeral 4 will be used to indicate a belt. However, grooves 17 are formed at the ends of the rollers to receive the wires 16 and so these Wires, travelling at the same speed as the circumference of a circle of smaller diameter than the .rollers 6, travel slower than the belts 4. Loops 18 attached to selvedges 19 on the woven belt 4, pass over the wires. The lateral dimension are so arranged that Wires 16 pull gently on the loops 18, so maintaining the belt laterally taut. Because the wires move slower than the belt there will be continual slip between wires and loops. The sides of the grooves 17 slope gently so that the loops 18 pass smoothly through them whenever the part of the belt to which the loops are attached passes a roller 6.

Another way of opposing lateral wander of the belts 4 is shown in FIGURE 3. At intervals along their paths of travel, the selvedges 19 of the belt 4 pass between pairs of small idler rollers 21. These pairs of rollers are carried by supports 22 fixed to the machine, and the gaps between them are adjustable by means indicated diagrammatically at 23 and controllable by sensers 24 which detect lateral wandering of the belt. The axes of the rollers 21 are angled to the direction of travel of the belt. Should one edge of the belt touch a senser 24, the gap between the appropriate pair of rollers 21 is closed by the appropriate control 23. Now, as the belt is pulled through this nip by reason of the driving action of the rollers 6, the closed idler rollers will exert a lateral pull upon the belt to correct the wander. If desired, the rollers 21 could be driven, in which case the strength of their pulling action upon the belt 4 would depend not only upon the angle their axes make with the direction of travel and upon the tightness of the nip, but also upon their speed of rotation. FIGURE 4 shows another way in which the belt may be guided. A coupling between members on the belt and devices mounted on the machine alongside it is effected by the engagement of devices in the form of sprocket wheels 25 and cooperating members on the selvedge 19 of the belt in the form of eyelet holes 26. The selvedge is doubled over and seamed down and a flat flexible strengthening strip 27 is inserted down the passage 28 so formed.

Strips such as 27 can also with advantage be added to belts of other types, since besides strengthening the belt the strip resists transverse flexing and so helps to maintain the edge of the belt straight between the points Where there is a direct connection between the belt and the means guiding it.

As will have been apparent from the description of belts already given, satisfactory belts may for instance be made from wool or cotton, linen or synthetic fibres (for instance polyester fibre, polyethylene or polypropylene), or glass fibres coated with plastics for instance rpo-lytetrafluoroethylene or the like, or may be of lace or a variety of weaves. It is envisaged that successive belts may later be made of flexible sheets, probably of plastic material and will be perforated to ensure that the belts meet the open work requirements already referred to. It is desirable that the belts should be dimensionally stable at least in the lengthwise direction.

Although this invention has been described with principal reference to a machine for laundering flat work, it is of course applicable to the laundering of other work that will stand passing through the hips of mangle rollers, and is also applicable to dyeing and dry-cleaning processes and many other applications in which small articles must travel some distance through a machine while being contacted by fluid.

fi e claim:

1'. Apparatus "for treating articles by fluid including a treatment vessel, a pair of open-Work belts mounted to travel within the treatment vessel and adapted to carry articles sandwiched between the belts through the vessel, jets to direct fluid under pressure and substantially normally onto the articles carried between the belts, and at least one pair of rollers forming a nip through which the belts pass, said open-work belts being constructed of soft compressible strands so as to pass through the nip formed by said rollers without damaging either the belts, the articles or the rollers, said belts being further adapted to allow the fluid to pass freely therethrough onto said articles, said belts masking less than 10% of the surface area of the articles, and said belts being further constructed of a substantially non-absorptive material to allow the fluid to be readily expressed by said nip from the articles and from themselves whereby on emerging from the nip the belts and articles together contain not more than about 50% of their own weight of fluid.

2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which the belts are continuous.

3. Apparatus as claimed in claim 2 including guiding means to counter Wandering of the belts.

4. Apparatus as claimed in claim 2 in which the belts are perforated sheets of plastic material.

5. Apparatus as claimed in claim 2 in which the belts comprise a knotless squared fishnet fabric with M2 inch spaces between adjacent bars, the bars being .025 inch in thickness.

6. Apparatus as claimed in claim 2 in which said belts comprise a plain weave of monofil polyester fibre .020 inch in thickness and having 10 ends per inch and 16 picks per inch, warp and weft threads being heat bonded at their intersections, the completed fabric having an average thickness of .035 inch.

7. Apparatus as claimed in claim 2 in which said belts comprise a lace made of multifil yarn having 10 courses and 10 wales per inch, the average thickness of the lace being about .018 inch.

8. Apparatus as claimed in claim 2 in which said belts comprise a lace of multifil yarn having 5 courses and 5 wales to the inch the thickest yarns being about .020 inch in thickness.

9. Apparatus as claimed in claim. 2 in which said belts comprise a woven leno fabric of 15 picks and ends per inch with warp and weft yarns respectively about .005 and .010 inch thick. 10. Apparatus as claimed in claim 2 in which said belts comprise a woven leno fabric of 20 picks and ends per inch with warp and weft yarns respectively about .007 and .005 inch thick.

11. Apparatus as claimed in claim 2 in which said belts comprise a knitted fabric of average thickness about .012 inch and having about 24 courses and wales per inch.

12. Apparatus as claimed in claim 3 in which said belts have eyelet holes along the edges and said guiding means comprises rotatably mounted sprocket wheels which engage said eyelet holes.

13. Apparatus 'as claimed in claim 3 in which said belts have loops attached to the edges, said rollers haivng a circumferentialgroove formed near either end, said guiding means comprising a moving wire parallel with the edges of said belts, said Wire passing over said grooves and said loops passing over said wire.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 786,264 4/ 1905 Butterworth 68-22 899,339 9/1908 Shurnan 68-205 X 1,005,430 10/1911 Hoops 94 2,366,136 12/ 1944 Waldstein 68-205 X 2,771,785 11/1956 Short et al 68-44 2,828,001 3/1958 Bornemann *l98l3l 3,138,239 6/1964 Ackerman et al. l9813l IRVING BUNEVICH, Primary Examiner. 

1. APPARATUS FOR TREATING ARTICLES BY FLUID INCLUDING A TREATMENT VESSEL, A PAIR OF OPEN-WORK BELTS MOUNTED TO TRAVEL WITHIN THE TREATMENT VESSEL AND ADAPTED TO CARRY ARTICLES SANDWICHED BETWEEN THE BELTS THROUGH THE VESSEL, JETS TO DIRECT FLUID UNDER PRESSURE AND SUBSTANTIALLY NORMALLY ONTO THE ARTICLES CARRIED BETWEEN THE BELTS, AND AT LEAST ONE PAIR OF ROLLERS FORMING A NIP THROUGH WHICH THE BELTS PASS, SAID OPEN-WORK BELTS BEING CONSTRUCTED OF SOFT COMPRESSIBLE STRANDS SO AS TO PASS THROUGH THE NIP FORMED BY SAID ROLLERS WITHOUT DAMAGING EITHER THE BELTS, THE ARTICLES OR THE ROLLERS, SAID BELTS BEING FURTHER ADAPTED TO ALLOW THE FLUID TO PASS FREELY THERETHROUGH ONTO SAID ARTICLES, SAID BELTS MASKING LESS THAN 10% OF THE SURFACE AREA OF THE ARTICLES, AND SAID BELTS BEING FURTHER CONSTRUCTED OF A SUBSTANTIALLY NON-ABSORPTIVE MATERIAL TO ALLOW THE FLUID TO BE READILY EXPRESSED BY SAID NIP FROM THE ARTICLES AND FROM THEMSELVES WHEREBY ON EMERGING FROM THE NIP THE BELTS AND ARTICLES TOGETHER CONTAIN NOT MORE THAN ABOUT 50% OF THEIR OWN WEIGHT OF FLUID. 